2025 Steering Committee Candidates

Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2025 Archival History Section election. Please take some time to review their candidate statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice. 

You will be voting for:

• One Vice Chair/Chair-Elect for a one year term and then a one year term as Chair
• Three Steering Committee Members for a one year term
• One Student/Early Career Member for a one year term

Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey. Ballots remain open on June 25 and close July 16.

Vice Chair/Chair-Elect Candidate

The following candidate is running for the Vice Chair/Chair-Elect position:

Katharina Hering

Bio: Katharina Hering’s research interests include the history of Pennsylvania German genealogical practices in transnational perspective, the history of archives and records in Nazi Germany, the history of digital history, and the history of oral history. She works as a Digital Project Librarian at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, and also regularly teaches an undergraduate course in digital literacy with a focus on oral history as an adjunct at the Department of History & Art History at George Mason University. She holds a PhD in history from George Mason University and a MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. A list of publications can be accessed from her Zotero profile: https://www.zotero.org/khering).

Statement: I greatly enjoyed serving on the Archival History steering committee in 2022/23, and would love to continue serving the members of the section as Vice-Chair/Chair Elect. I’m eager to collaborate with Elizabeth Jones-Minsinger and the members of the steering committee to continue the ongoing work and initiatives of our dynamic section. I’m particularly interested in continuing the work of the archival history section newsletter sub-committee (established last year) and in helping with organizing our microsite so that we can more easily find resources, including past newsletters. I’m also dedicated to continuing the archival history bibliography, and in developing the archival history writing group that we’ve already planned. The annual archival history award and annual lecture are highlights of our section. I’m committed to supporting colleagues to research the history of archives, records, and collections, including at our own institutions. Whether our research is published in peer-reviewed journals or presented in other formats, such as podcasts or exhibitions, archival history matters more than ever.

Steering Committee Member Candidates

The following candidates are running for the Steering Committee. (The names below are placed in alphabetical order.)

Mollie Frazier

Bio:  I am in my second year as the archivist of East Carolina University's Laupus Library in Greenville, NC. Prior to this, I worked in NC State University's Special Collections department and he received my undergraduate degrees from East Carolina University in Hispanic Studies and History. I wanted to be an archivist since I lwas a teenager, having a strong passion for preserving history and culture. I love working every day towards something I think is so important for interconnectedness and community.

Statement: I am writing to express my interest in the member-at-large position for SAA's Archival History Section Steering Committee. As a lover of history and a huge proponent of archival studies, I believe archival history is so important for scholarship and exploration. I am eager to contribute to meaningful conversations about the profession's past and the direction it is heading in the future as well as support future archivists. Serving on the AHS Steering Committee would allow me to give back and grow professionally and would love the opportunity to do so.

Sharalyn D. Howcroft

Bio: MA in Library and Information Science with an archival studies concentration, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Certified Archivist, Academy of Certified Archivists, 2015-present; Exam development committee, Academy of Certified Archivists, 2019-present; Digital Archives Specialist, Society of American Archivists, 2021-present; Project Archivist, The Joseph Smith Papers, 2018-present; Tier 2 Preservation Committee, Church History Library, 2024-present; Archives Subcommittee Chair, Pleasant Grove Historic Preservation Commission, Pleasant Grove City (Utah), 2025-present. 

Statement: I am writing to convey my interest in a Member-at-Large vacancy in the Archival History Section Steering Subcommittee of the Society of American Archivists.  The history of archives is key to understanding the emergence of professional archival practice in the United States and how and why certain records are preserved by institutions. My work as project archivist for The Joseph Smith Papers motivated me to study the Historian’s Office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the record keeping practices of other repositories in greater detail and taught me the underutilized and frequently unsung value of institutional memory held in corporate and institutional records. This discovery process clarified organizational identity and provided context for institutional trajectory. I love archives history! And I hope to instill in subcommittee members a boundless passion for the history of their institutions and the role they play in shaping community and organizational identity, purpose, and legacy. I look forward to hearing from you about the duties and responsibilities of this position.

Patrick McGee

Bio: I am pursuing an MA in History and MLS in Information Studies at Queens College. I am currently working as an Associate Archivist with the CUNY Cultivating Archives and Institutional Memory project and a Research Fellow with the CUNY Archival Technologies Lab.  My personal research is on early histories of digital technology and its relationship to intellectual histories of modern fascism, and I founded the CUNY Right Wing Studies Working Group to engage with other academics working on the topic. 

Statement: I am very interested in joining the Archival History Section Steering Committee. Archival history is of great interest to me, and I have started doing some writing about some of the formative debates that occurred in the major scholarly journals since the 1980s. I would love to get more involved with the AHS, and think I would be an engaged and friendly participant and fellow organizer.

Student/Early Career Member Candidate

The following candidate is running for the Student/Early Career Member position: 

Madelaine Davis

Bio:  I am a graduate student in the MLIS program at LSU, specializing in archival studies with a focus on sensory history, trauma-informed ethics, and metadata theory. My current research, supported by a Directed Independent Study, investigates scent as an archival object and explores how olfactory memory can be ethically and creatively preserved through public-facing projects like zines and participatory digital collections.

Statement: Before entering the field of archives, I spent over a decade in marketing and communications, leading strategic campaigns and managing digital platforms. I’m excited to bring that experience to the Archival History Section—particularly in support of outreach, public engagement, and event planning. I would be honored to contribute to the section’s lecture programming and collaborative efforts that highlight the richness and relevance of archival history.